Jupiter Ascending - Review

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

That's pretty much the funniest line in the movie. Besides the "I love dogs," line.

The Plot

In the Universal Business of Time and Youth, the three sibling heirs (Eddie Redmayne, Tuppence Middleton, and Douglas Booth) of the Abrasax Family compete to possess the Earth. The problem is, standing in their way is the sole heir to the planet Earth. Her name is Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis), who is the genetic reincarnation of the Abrasax siblings' mother, The Queen of the Universe. With bounty hunters hired by each sibling to capture her, Jupiter is thrusted into a world that goes beyond the planet Earth and into the large universe of industry. Her only protector is an albino werewolf soldier named Caine (Channing Tatum) whose allegiance may lie with one of the three siblings who desire her capture... or her death.

Review

If that plot synopsis confused you, then chances are this movie will. Well, it actually won't. The Wachowski Siblings are probably best known as the directors who gave the world The Matrix. It is arguably one of the greatest science fiction films of all time, as well as being one of the most influential action films for the post-modern age. Unfortunately, after that movie, the siblings have not created something that would be deemed successful, both critically and financially. I'm in the camp though that does love Cloud Atlas, an ambitious film that was also co-directed with Tom Tykwer. So one can say I was hoping that this film can at least recapture the magic of The Matrix by taking a much more lighter in tone route. And for the first hour, they succeed tremendously. But then after the first hour, that's when things become episodic. And not in the good way.

If The Matrix was about a character entering a universe within a computer, then Jupiter Ascending is pretty much the opposite by actually launching out into space. The film starts with the simplistic chosen one hero plot line, which works really well in the first hour of the film. Kunis's Jupiter is definitely someone down on their luck and has a tragic backstory that make you feel for her. Which is how it should be. We're ready to root for whatever curveball in life she gets thrown into. Unfortunately we only feel that way in the first hour. Kunis's Jupiter actually doesn't have a very well developed character arc. She does start the movie with one mood and ends the movie with another, but it didn't really feel like she's grown as a character. Her change didn't seem all that life changing, despite the fact she just discovered she's the Queen of Earth, which should've been a hell of a lot more life changing than what was given in this story. But it was fine.

Playing her protector on this journey and forced love interest is Channing Tatum as the albino defected werewolf, Caine Wise. Tatum has definitely grown into a solid actor, and this movie continues to prove it as he was easily the best part of the movie. Which is saying a lot given that there  is a potential Oscar winner in this movie playing a villain. But that potential Oscar winner is not being nominated for his performance in this movie. But on the subject of Tatum, his character is the one that has a more thought out and developed story compared to Jupiter's. And that is mostly attributed to the relationship between him and his mentor Stinger, played by Sean Bean. Unfortunately, their plot is the Z-Plot of the movie. And by Z-Plot, I mean that Kunis's Jupiter is involved with the A, B, C, and D plot.

The second hour of the film diverges into three different plots that don't really connect other than the fact that the three antagonistic forces in each plot are siblings. The first "pit stop" after the fantastic hour involves Kalique Abrasax, played by Tuppence Middleton. Although there is something untrustworthy about her, she doesn't delve too far into the villainous route that her brothers do. Her main purpose is to provide exposition. A lot of exposition. It's a wonder why she's even in the movie at all if she's only going to show up to give exposition and have no effect to the larger story. The second pit stop after Ms. Exposition is a wedding with Titus Abrasax, played by Douglas Booth. He gives a variation of the exposition that Kalique gives during the first pit stop, except he actually tries to do something. He wants to marry Jupiter, so that he can inherit the Earth. Which is sort of creepy given that Jupiter is the exact genetic replica of his mother. But just like Kalique's pit stop, if this part was removed from the movie, it would not make a difference. Then there's the final pit stop in the movie involving the eldest Abrasax sibling, Balem, played by Oscar Nominee Eddie Redmayne.

Redmayne is promoted as the central villain of the movie. And while his character Balem is definitely sprinkled throughout the movie, he doesn't appear to really do anything until after the first two unnecessary pit stops in Jupiter's journey across the universe. While he doesn't give exposition, he could've easily been given the exposition of his siblings AND be a more MENACING VILLAIN. But instead we have a crybaby who talks like an old man about to die. So he comes off as not being a genuine threat. His henchmen of Dragon Men do appear to be a genuine threat. But like Balem, they don't really do anything in the first hour and half of the movie to prove they are a threat. I strongly believe that Balem's story is far more important than the ones involving his brother and sister. In fact, his brother and sister could've been removed from the movie entirely, which would allow more time to develop him and his alien Dragon Men. But no, his initial menace that was hinted at in the fantastic first hour, does not carry over to the second.

That's not to say the movie is boring. It is a fun and entertaining film with incredible breathtaking visuals. The action is astounding and just keeps getting better as the movie progress. The problem is, there are so few action scenes because in between are long periods of talking about business and harvesting and politics. Which is why if the movie just focused on Balem as the central antagonist, this movie would've been so much better. It saddens me to say that, because Tuppence Middleton and Douglas Booth gave far better performances as antagonists than Eddie Redmayne. 

Final Thoughts

This is a genuinely entertaining movie. I was not bored while watching it. Like I said, the first hour, which takes place predominantly on Earth, is a fantastic way to begin a movie then send us off on a journey to space. Unfortunately, no matter how beautiful space is, the second hour just doesn't live up to the adventure promised in the first hour. When we're suppose to be feeling something for Kunis's Jupiter, we instead feel more for Tatum's Caine and Bean's Stinger. All in all, despite all that, I'd say it is a fun watch. It is after all an original film, so it is always good to see something new. Even though it falls apart in the final hour. At least it's not a complete disaster.

SCORE: 6.5/10 - An extraordinary first hr, but a disappointing yet still entertaining second hr

The Book of Life - Analysis and Review

Color me...confused

About 1/3 into the movie, I was asking myself this question: Why does this movie have a 79% certified fresh critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes?

The Plot

Two deities, voiced by Kate Del Castillo and Ron Perlman, make a wager involving two young men, voiced by Diego Luna and Channing Tatum, on which one of them will marry their childhood crush, voiced by Zoe Saldana. The stakes? The kingdoms of the dead.

Analysis

Theatrically released kids movies, pretty much have a standard. That standard is, can adults find some form of enjoyment too? That standard for American cartoons was created by Walt Disney. His animated films contain heavy amounts of depth that didn't shy away from dark things, but was able to balance it well by sugarcoating the product into something kids can enjoy. Then Pixar took it a step further by having the notion that they make adult animated films that kids can enjoy and then fully understand once they grow up. Dreamworks accomplished this early on by being a little bit too adult, but eventually found the right balance once Guillermo Del Toro joined the group to oversee projects like Kung Fu Panda, Puss in Boots, and How to Train Your Dragon. 

That is what separates American animation from the highly popular Japanese anime. Good american animation hides mature themes with visual splendor and incredible storytelling. Japanese anime does this too, depending on what type of genre they're dealing with. If anything, the one Japanese studio that has mastered, and outclasses, this American form of animation is probably Studio Ghibli. Their films are just as whimsical as any Pixar or new age Dreamworks film, yet they don't hide being mature. Rather, they have it in the right places and utilize them in the right ways. Because in the end, incredible storytelling is what counts.

That's not what I saw here.

Review

This movie is boring. Plain and simple. It is really boring. Which given all the talent behind this film, I'm astonished. But then again part of me should be surprised. 

Guillermo Del Toro is one of my favorite directors, and has made one of my all time favorite comic book movies in Hellboy, but he attaches his name to a lot of things. And most of the time, just because his name is attached to it, does not mean it is good. It's a lesson that I should've learned whenever I saw the "Produced by Steven Spielberg" title card appear in the Transformers films, but perhaps I kept thinking because it is Del Toro, it might be different. I know that he wants to bring awareness of Mexican Culture to the states in a colorful way, and this project by animation director Jorge Gutierrez would've definitely been the best way to do so. If only the movie wasn't so... cliche.

Now, I like a lot of cliche movies. Just look at my reviews for Dracula Untold and Hercules. Both are really predictable and filled with cliches that are used only somewhat effectively. But while they are pretty bad movies, they are pretty damn good entertaining movies. This isn't. Now that sounds like a bad comparison because this is a kids film. But from my analysis section, you can pretty much pick up why I'm going to say this is a bad film: There is no subtlety or depth.

The characters, Manolo (Diego Luna), Joaquin (Channing Tatum) and Maria (Zoe Saldana) are extremely cliche. By extreme I mean you can predict already who is going to do what and even what a character is going to say. While each of them are distinct, they're more like caricatures of the cliches they are. Manolo is the dreamer, Joaquin is the macho hero and Maria is an independent woman who loves books. If you know the cliches of those characters, now think about what lines those cliches usually say and you'll be surprised when they say all the lines you predicted they'll say. While it's okay to have stock characters say cliche things, there at least has to be a lot more creativity with how they're said or even a few tweaks to the stock characters. Not only that, the supporting cast was extremely cliche. And you can probably predict what they're going to say as well and be right. This automatically kills any sense of character depth because it makes them all feel like they're picked up from a toy box. In fact, the frame story is they come from a toy box. But Toy Story did not feel this cliche and predictable. And they had way more personality than these puppets.

And the story. My god the story was just not paced well at all. Some portions of this movie was dedicated to having it being told as a story to detention students by a sexy museum tour guide. And yes, it is made clear that she is sexy from how all the male character act around her. Then nearly 20 minutes of the movie is spent with the characters as children, which was highly unnecessary when it could've been summed up in just one to five minutes. Then almost 45 minutes of the movie is dedicated to the adult main characters as they childishly fight over Maria. Which honestly should've just been the first 20 minutes of the movie. Then when the interesting part that takes place in the two Underworlds happen, it is only the last remaining 20 minutes of the movie. That portion should've been the entire run time of the movie. The trailers make it seem like an hour of the movie will take place in the Land of the Remembered and the Land of the Forgotten, but nope, it just sped right through. This is mainly because it was trying to be epic by telling the story over decades when it really just needed to be told when Maria becomes a woman and the two guys are fighting over her. To put it simply, if you saw the trailer for the movie, you've seen the whole movie, and the trailer was better.

And what I'm flabbergasted by the most is the critical acclaim for this film. Most of the acclaim has the excuse that "the visuals are spectacular, even the story was so-so." In my opinion Sucker Punch had spectacular visuals and the story was so-so. Yet you don't see me giving that movie a positive rating, and I love Zack Snyder too. As far as the visuals go, this movie was not even anywhere remotely visually interesting. Yes, it does get interesting to look at once the character dies and goes to the Underworlds, but the movie doesn't spend too much time there. Instead it spends more time in the boring living world where boring dialogue just makes everything in this movie boring. And while the visuals of the Underworld was definitely something, it was not spectacular. A still image makes it spectacular, but in motion it is pretty bland. Compare the visual excitement of Rise of the Guardians' Santa's workshop to the "visual excitement" of the Land of the Remembered in this film and you'll notice that one is a million times superior to the other. 

There are some good things I should say though. Zoe Saldana is great and her voice is charming as the overtly cliched "I don't need a man" Maria. But Ron Perlman as the film's antagonist Xibalba was surprising for me. He nailed the Spanish accent and spoke with a cadence that made his voice unrecognizable for me. So that was a big surprise. But other than that, this movie was too short to have any depth yet felt like it was 3 hours long because of the boring characters and odd pacing.

Final Thoughts

If none of that made any sense then I'll just put it as this. It is a kids movie in the sense that only a child below the age of six will enjoy this movie. Meaning it is the type of movie you'd find as a straight to dvd release rather than a big theatrical one. Theatrical animated movies are indeed targeted for children, but the best animated movies are the ones made for adults yet children are capable of understanding them too. This movie fails in delivering a nice representation of Mexican Culture and as an animated kids movie. The feeling I had watching this movie was the same exact feeling I had watching Transformers: Age of Extinction. The only saving grace is that this movie was shorter, yet it still felt as long as Age of Extinction. Don't believe the critic ratings because this movie is trash. If you have a child though, this movie is definitely for them... but as a rental not a theater experience.

SCORE: 2/10 - Those two points are for Zoe Saldana and Ron Perlman's voice acting.

22 Jump Street - Analysis and Review

It just keeps getting better and better

21 Jump Street took a lot of people by surprise. There were many who believed the fact that it exists as a cash grab. At the time, the announcement of casting Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as the lead roles even had more people rolling their eyes. But then when it did finally came to the big screen, magic happened. Self-aware magic that made 21 Jump Street a really special film. It also proved that animation directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller can be a formidable force with live action films as well. They have been on a roll with their slate, and The Lego Movie proves that they know what they are doing. But can they match up to the movie that made them the powerhouses they are now?

The Plot

Undercover Officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are once again thrown into the same exact scenario as the last movie because apparently the department believes that they only excel if they do the same thing. And they do the same thing. They infiltrate a school as students in order to hunt down a drug dealer who is supplying a new kind of drug. The difference? They're in college.

Analysis

Comedy sequels are really hard to do. The Hangover Part II was pretty much exactly the same as the first one. And just like I stated in the plot synopsis, 22 Jump Street is pretty much the same exact thing. Or at least it claims to be. But that is the difficulty about creating a good comedy sequel. They are extremely rare and when they do happen it usually comes off as, "Is this really necessary?" For the most part no one needed a sequel to The Hangover but it happened, and it was the exact same thing. 22 Jump Street however acknowledges and beats it over your head that this movie is exactly the same thing as the last one. But then again not really. But at least with this film they acknowledge and poke fun of not just the fact that they're doing a sequel but also make fun of sequels in general. The audience will probably understand the jokes about the Hollywood system when it comes to franchises, but probably won't even realize how much of a satire it is on franchises in general. This is a smart sequel to an already smart movie. And I'm talking about a comedy. The best comedies are smart, but a comedy sequel that is just as smart and just as funny as the previous is truly something special.

Review

It may be the exact same thing, but I also have to stress that there are enough twists and turns to make it not seem like it is. But to be fair it does feel like the same exact story. But to the genius that is directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, it doesn't matter that its the same. This movie is ****ing hilarious! Incredibly so that one could easily look past the reused plot. Which is very easy to look past given the fact that it is a running joke in the movie that they are doing the same thing as the last one because it was successful. And it definitely is.

Jonah Hill has already established himself as a force in comedy and has gone on to prove that he can be great in the dramatic department. But if there is one person that has to be given praise it has to be Channing Tatum. Unlike some models turned actors, he actually improved over the years that he has been in the game. 21 Jump Street was definitely his breakout role despite having already been around and in the people's radar for many years prior. With the upcoming film Foxcatcher he shows that he is now capable of being a genuine dramatic actor from just a few seconds seen in a trailer. And this film proves that he has definitely become a force to be reckoned with in comedy. Tatum is amazing in this film. Everyone from the first film stepped up their game, but Tatum goes through the roof. He even has the best scene in the entire movie. When you see it, you'll know which one it is because you won't be able to stop laughing even after its over. Ice Cube plays an integral part in making that scene the best scene, but he definitely had some of the best moments in the film as well. 

The new supporting cast does well in the movie. Wyatt Russell plays Zook, a frat boy and kindred spirit to Tatum's Jenko. Their bromance just added more to the humor as it plays it up as a "love triangle" between Hill, Russell, and Tatum. Then there's the incredibly beautiful Amber Stevens as Maya, Hill's new love interest in the film who plays an integral part in Hill's development as a character as well as an integral part to the hilarious scene in the movie. Jillian Bell plays Maya's roommate and does become a one note joke in the movie, but when it escalates it escalates well. Peter Stormare plays the drug lord that Jenko and Schmidt are after, though it feels as though an actor of his caliber is underutilized for the role of the villain. Or wasn't really given enough to have a standout performance. Regardless, they all contributed into making this film hilarious and that is where it all really matters.

Final Thoughts

Yes, it is the same thing. Yes, it is a little bit different. Yes, Channing Tatum is now a full fledged actor. Yes, this movie will keep you laughing for a long time. It is the comedy sequel that equals or outshines the previous movie in almost every single way, Yes there was Austin Powers the Spy Who Shagged Me, but then there is also The Hangover Part II. Luckily for this sequel, it does not compare to either of those movies. To put things in perspective, I gave the previous movie an 8. For this...

SCORE: 8.5/10 - But for the hilarious factor the movie feels like a 9/10